Ordinary white button mushrooms have been transformed into ‘bionic’ fungi capable of producing eco-friendly electricity with a little help from some bacteria and nanotechnology.

Researchers at the Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey have added cyanobacteria (commonly known as blue-green bacteria) and graphene nanoribbons to the cap of the mushrooms to generate and collect electricity.

Manu Mannoor, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the Institute, said: “By integrating cyanobacteria that can produce electricity, with nanoscale materials capable of collecting the current, we were able to better access the unique properties of both, augment them, and create an entirely new functional bionic system.

Bionic system

Using a robotic arm-based 3-D printer, the cap of the mushrooms were first printed with an “electronic ink” containing graphene nanoribbons.

The graphene ribbons, strips of a single layer of carbon atoms, act like imaginary needles to tap the electricity from the bacteria.

Then the mushroom cap was printed with a “bio ink” containing the cyanobacteria.

Cyanobacteria is known for its ability to produce electricity in photosynthesis but past use of these in bio-engineering has been limited by its short life span.

But with a mushroom as the host, it extended the life of the bacteria by several days.

Generating light

In this case, our system – this bionic mushroom – produces electricity

Dr Manu Mannoor

When light was shone on a ‘bionic mushroom’, the bacteria began photosynthesis which generated a current of electricity (65 nano Amps) which was collected by the graphene ribbon.

As part of the study, published in the journal Nano Letters, the scientists found the more densely packed the bacteria, the more electricity they produce.

And they believe an array of these bionic mushrooms, could generate enough electricity to light up an LED.

Dr Mannoor said: “By seamlessly integrating these microbes with nanomaterials, we could potentially realize many other amazing designer bio-hybrids for the environment, defense, healthcare and many other fields.”

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